Hamilton quickest in third practice by nearly eight tenths

Lewis Hamilton went nearly eight tenths quicker than team-mate Valtteri Bottas in FP3 at Sochi, but Max Verstappen showed there is promise for Red Bull in what has been a dominant weekend for Mercedes so far.

Predictably at what is his one of his best circuits, Bottas was immediately to the top of the time sheets when the Mercedes emerged on the soft tyre, despite an earlier moment off the track at Turn 7.

Hamilton straddled the sausage kerb after a similar moment at the same corner which meant he was outside of the top 10, but soon improved to just over two tenths slower than Bottas.

As the end of the session closed in and the qualifying simulations began though, Hamilton delivered a lap 0.776s faster than his team-mate – with Bottas’s only excuse a slight bit of traffic on his faster run.

Despite Friday suggesting Mercedes pace is untouchable, Verstappen delivered a brilliant lap to split Bottas and Hamlton earlier in the session as the Red Bull sparked its way around the Sochi Autodrome.

However, Verstappen backed out of a lap which had the fastest first sector of anyone in the qualifying sims, and didn’t make good on that pace in consequent laps – which left him sixth, with much faster underlying pace.

Arguably the star of the session was Carlos Sainz Jr at McLaren, who jumped into the top three in a close battle for best of the rest behind the Mercedes, and potentially Verstappen.

Setting his time late on but before the track rose a couple of degrees for his rivals, Sainz was less than a tenth slower than Bottas, in a session where his team-mate Lando Norris wasn’t able to string a full lap together and was 20th-fastest with the new McLaren nose.

Behind Sainz, Esteban Ocon made good on Renault’s earlier practice pace with the fourth-fastest time, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Racing Point and Verstappen.

Sebastian Vettel made the rare move in 2020 of beating Charles Leclerc, taking the seventh-fastest time with team-mate Leclerc down in 12th for Ferrari.

Lance Stroll headed home hero Danill Kvyat, while Ocon’s Renault team-mate Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10 and could have been higher up after a tricky session, having had to hold a bent wing mirror in place on occasion during his fastest lap.

Pierre Gasly was 11th for Alpha Tauri ahead of Leclerc, while George Russell and Nicholas Latifi delivered a good session for Williams in 13th and 15th respectively.

They split a “fed up” Romain Grosjean, who spun late on, wrestling the Haas car to 14th while making his feelings about the balance of the car known in no uncertain terms on the team radio.

Antonio Giovinazzi was the top Alfa Romeo in 17th, behind the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen and ahead of Alfa team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, while Alex Albon had a time disallowed for running wide at Turn 2 late on and was 19th ahead of Norris.

Practice 3 Results